1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an electrical connector assembly, and more particularly to a USB (Universal Serial Bus) connector assembly with improved contact soldering ends for crosstalk reduction.
2. Description of Related Arts
Personal computers (PC) are widely used today. Universal Serial Bus (USB) is a serial bus standard to the PC architecture which focuses on computer telephony interface, consumer and productivity applications. The design of USB is standardized by the USB Implementers Forum (USB-IF), an industry standard body incorporating leading companies from the computer and electronic industries. USB can connect peripherals such as mouse devices, keyboards, PDAs, gamepads and joysticks, scanners, digital cameras, printers, external storage, networking components, etc. For many devices such as scanners and digital cameras, USB has become the standard connection method. Furthermore, due to the need for high speed signal transmission of electronic products, USB 3.0 connectors have been adopted.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2010/0112863 published on May 6, 2010 discloses a USB 3.0 connector. The USB 3.0 connector comprises an insulative body including integral forward part and backward part. The forward part is split into a narrow tongue and a wide tongue disposed in a common plane. The narrow tongue and the wide tongue are spaced a distance from each other at front ends thereof. The USB 3.0 connector comprises a plurality of first contacts received in the narrow tongue and a plurality of second contacts received in the wide tongue, respectively transmitting differential signals. Each contact comprises a contacting portion extending beyond an upper surface of the frontward part of the insulative housing and a soldering portion extending out of the backward part and thus, exposed outside the insulative housing. The contacts are soldered with wires of a cable, and during the process, the soldering portions of the contacts are prone to be damaged, because no protection is provided to the soldering portions. Furthermore, a shield covers the insulative housing and an insulative cover is usually molded over the shield, and the soldering portions of the contacts might be deflected during the molding process. Two adjacent soldering portions may connect with each other and shorting occurs subsequently.
Additionally, the contacting portions extend in a first, same horizontal plane and the soldering portions extend alternately, both upwardly and downwardly relative to the corresponding contacting portions, at different horizontal planes from the first horizontal plane. Because each contact extends straight along a mating direction, each soldering portion is offset with respect to adjacent soldering portions in a top view. Therefore, the impedance thereof is large and may hinder high speed signal transmission, although two differential signals are transmitted. Finally, the first contacts comprise a pair of transmitting contacts, a pair of receiving contacts, and a grounding contact located at the same side of the transmitting contacts and receiving contacts and so do the second contacts. The transmitting contacts and the receiving contacts are so close that crosstalk may occur therebetween. Since the grounding contact is disposed at the same side of the transmitting contacts and the receiving contacts rather than disposed between the transmitting contacts and receiving contacts, grounding effect is reduced.
Hence, an electrical connector assembly with improved contact soldering ends for crosstalk reduction is desired to overcome the aforementioned disadvantage of the prior art.